Would you wait for me?
by She-Ninja
Summary: Oneshot. They have five minutes before they are rescued. Will they make it? Or will they succomb to their grief and fears? Based on a true story.


Disclaimer- I don't own halo figures and game play.

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The sound of metal scraping on metal echoed through the small canyon as his weapon clattered across the bar, and his breath caught. Carefully, the Spartan levered himself onto the platform, making as little sound as possible. Some armor scraped here and there, but he ignored the sound, along with his racing heart. He analyzed the space and surrounding area of their new territory, before turning and looking over the edge the way he came.

Except for the small shakes, she was still as stone, her gun steady as she scanned the area. A small feeling of pride crept into his throat, but he ignored it.

"Clear?"

His soft voice cut through the silence like a sharp knife. Resisting the urge to jump, she looked up at him.

"Clear."

He nodded at her, and she set her gun carefully on the ledge above her head. After taking a moment to position her feet, she was preparing to leap up when his red-armored arm came into her sight.

"Here."

Gratefully she grasped it, letting him pull her easily up.

She wasn't as heavy as one would expect her to be, but he merely supposed that it was his armor-beefed muscles fooling him.

The sun was beating down on them, high in the sky and shining with an unforgivable glare.

After picking up her gun, he turned to walk up to the highest point on their bar, before stopping.

She was splayed out on the ground. If she hadn't been wearing armor, he would have though she was sun-bathing. As was, he was slightly confused.

A feeling that multiplied when she began removing her helmet.

Dry air brushed her lips first, but sprang past the rest of her face quickly, tickling her nose. The sound of her helm changing pressures was an odd hiss, and the smell of the wind gave off a stench.

"What are you doing?" He asked her. Her eyes flicked to him. His voice was much more muffled when her helmet was off.

"Stretching. Airing out." After rolling her shoulders, she reached up and removed her hair-tie, letting her brown tresses finger the light breeze.

He stood awkwardly a few feet away, staring at her unleashed features. From her point of view, he was stone, holding two shotguns and the weight of surprise.

Slowly, he began to move, handing her shotgun to her. With a nod, she began to reload it. The sound of shells filling the barrel stole the silence, until he flipped open his Active Battle Information.

Her eyes were steady on him as he sighed.

"We have around five minutes until the drop ship comes in."

"Simple enough. At this rate, it won't be too difficult. As long as they don't find us-"

"What if they do, though?" He glanced at her through his face-plate again, shifting his weight.

"Listen, I will be a lot more comfortable about your safety if your helmet is on."

Her blue eyes bore into his helm, and he gulped.

"Yes, sir."

Her color disappeared behind the painted metal once more.

"Thank you."

Quite suddenly, they heard sluggish footsteps.

His gun was cocked and ready, pointed at the only way up in a matter of seconds. She was soon behind him, her eyes scanning the ground around them.

"How many do you hear?" Her voice was a whisper near his ear, only distinguishable from wind by the device on his head.

"Three, four, maximum of ten. You know how they walk."

She nodded briskly.

"How much time?"

A pause.

"Three minutes."

A shape moved from behind a pillar, some yards away. The two humans froze.

"James?" He whispered, and his gun lowered.

"You know that isn't him anymore." The now Spartan shaped thing stumbled towards them at the speed of a crawl.

She watched as more shapes began emerging from the distance.

"James…" he whispered again. His gun hung at his side.

At the sight of the new arrivals, she became momentarily speechless. That soon passed when 'James' made long, slow scratching noises at the metal below them, his weapon leaving black marks on the silver. Her companion had begun lowering himself when she snapped her hand around his arm and yanked him up.

"Dammit Justin! That's not your little brother anymore!" Her point was backed up as James made groaning noises far below. Low, inhuman groaning noises.

"I can save him-" Justin began, trying to rip his arm free. She glanced below, noting the mass amount of green bodies that were merging at the foot of their high-ground.

She threw him back on the metal, before whipping her gun up and blasting at a creature that was starting to climb.

Swiftly she turned and bore down on the shocked Justin.

"They are all Zombies. I wish we could do something for them, but we can't. We can only-"

"Lookout!!" Justin screamed, interrupting her and throwing her aside. Caught off-guard, she skittered across the ground and vaulted over the side, only catching the edge at the last moment.

Meanwhile, Justin had flown to the other side, where a green hand had snatched at the floor he stood on. Without remorse, the human blasted his little brother to the ground.

Turning, he caught sight of a lonely shotgun lying at his feet. His eyes trailed to the scratches on the metal, and landed on a single, red-painted metal-clad hand that gripped the side.

"Ellen!" he cried, and grabbed her hand. Glancing over at the rest of her, he saw her body jerking and twisting as it avoided the hungry undead below.

Dropping his weapon, he pulled her up with both hands, and they collapsed on the floor for a moment.

"How much time?" Ellen asked, grabbing her gun and blasting another zombie that got too close.

"Minute twenty five." He fired at the mass of green below them as the sound of jets began to fill the air.

Ellen straightened and waved down the rescue aircraft, before grabbed Justin out of the way of a zombie slicing at him with a piece of plasma.

They held the highest ground as zombies clawed their way up.

A burst of machine gun bullets sprayed over the first line of green, and the two humans looked up. The rescue aircraft was directly above them, lowering slowly.

"James…" He murmured. Ellen gripped his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Justin. At least you and I made it out to tell the rest-"

Justin watched in sudden horror as plasma ripped threw her stomach, blood spraying over his front and face-plate.

Her scream echoed for minutes, and the aircraft paused in descent for a moment.

"ELLEN!" Justin screamed in reply, and blasted her killer into smithereens. He dropped to his knee and lifted her up.

"Come on soldier!" He cried. "Don't you leave me now!"

Her arm struggled to lift, and she pressed her hand to the side of his helmet.

"Would you wait for me, Justin?"

With a soft clatter, her hand fell to the ground, her red life lights over her armor dimming out. Slowly, he set his soldier, fighter, companion, friend, down, and slowly straightened.

Another burst of bullets sprayed over his enemy, and with that sound, he took a few minutes to exact vengeance.

A few minutes were all that was needed.

From behind Justin, unknown to him, zombies took the body of his friend and chucked it off the edge, into the awaiting mouths of more. In a matter of seconds, hey had ripped off a piece of her armor, and one had bit into her flesh, letting the still-warm blood flow to the ground.

The bacteria was lightening fast, racing to her brain and jolting her back into wakefulness. Her life lights flared not red, but green.

Her helmet was removed once more, but she fought off the intruding zombie face with her hands, breaking from the mob and stumbling a few feet away before falling to the ground. Blood poured from her mouth, and surprisingly the zombies did not come for her.

Her eyes cleared, and she looked around slowly. Something red caught her eye a few yards away.

It took her a minute to get to it, but she found something worthwhile.

Tucked behind some sheets of metal was one of her close friends, still alive and breathing, his life lights green, but armor red.

"Johnny Boy…" she gasped. Her voice was no longer musical. It was deep and throaty, threatening.

His eyelids flickered and raised, his eyes staring unblinking at her chiseled face.

"And here I thought I would lay here and wait for death…" he rasped.

Her mouth quirked.

"Not on my watch, Johnny."

She lifted him up, letting him lean heavily on her as she dragged him through the mobs, towards Justin and the rescue aircraft.

Justin, who, at the time, had a handful of zombies clinging to him.

The first he threw off with the butt of his shotgun, the second with a punch in the face. From there, he cleared his gun and blasted them back easily.

"Hurry soldier! Reinforcements on their side are coming!"

Justin nodded grimly.

They had taken everything from him…

His brothers and cousin, his friends, his troops…

And now her…

"Ellen…"

Ellen, who was dragging Johnny Boy up the ramp and steps, until she reached the part where Justin had originally helped her up what seemed like years ago. Lifting Justin's cousin above her, she slid him onto the high ground, before kicking off from a zombie to grab hold of the ledge. Johnny Boy grabbed her hand and pulled, and together they got her up.

"Justin…" She croaked, and slowly rose to her feet.

His eyes widened with fear and anguish as her tortured form rose menacingly before him.

Her hair was already caked with blood, her face scratched and stomach still bleeding. Beside her, Johnny Boy was raising as well, his eyes dark and hair matted with sweat.

"No…" Justin whispered, backing up. He set his jaw half-heartedly, raising his shotgun to two of the most important people in his life.

"They aren't them…"

For a moment, Ellen could only stare down the double barrel of her friend's shotgun, before she tore her eyes away and looked Justin in the eyes.

"Justin, it's me…" She took a step forward, but stumbled over a stray arm. Johnny Boy lurched after her, clinging to her arm for help.

Justin backed up, cocking his weapon.

"No…Justin…Take me with you…"

Her voice was haunting him, that's what it was. It wasn't her voice, it was a zombies. It was a zombie with her face.

"Look, I found Johnny Boy." The zombie explained, bringing his cousin forward. Was it teasing him? Could they do that?

The rope ladder struck his back, and he reached an arm behind him to grip it.

"Justin." Johnny Boy suddenly spoke up. "Justin it's me, really."

Justin froze. That was Johnny's real voice.

"Johnny, get away from that." He slowly said. Johnny Boy looked confused.

"Justin, it's Ellen. She saved me-"

Justin grabbed his cousin's arm lightening fast, throwing the still weak boy at the rope ladder.

"Climb." Justin growled.

While Johnny Boy rose into the air, Justin aimed his gun at Ellen again, backing up until he too could reach the ladder.

"Justin…"

He pulled himself onto the first rung, and the aircraft slowly began moving away from her.

"...you won't wait for me?"

She was close enough that he could smell her. Her light, fruity scent mixed with blood. Close enough he could see her eyes, crystalline blue. Close enough he could hear her breathing…

Breathing?

Zombies don't breath…

As the aircraft began to fly away, Justin suddenly screamed out "ELLEN!"

But she had already fallen to her feet, fighting the feel of the Zombie Hunger creeping over her.

For she would starve to death rather than be undead.

(------+------)

Whoooo!! I wrote this in one night after playing several matches of Zombie on Halo 2. That actually happened, me and my friend were holding the high ground. With a minute left, they finally leapt up next to us. I blasted several, but was killed. My friend, in his anguish, tracked them down through the map and killed all but one, and hence, the game ended on a sad note…

BUT WAS SUPER FUN!!!

Epilog:

For those who though it ended on too sad of a note, Justin loops the aircraft around, save Ellen, and takes her back to the mother ship, where she dies peacefully…of starvation.


End file.
